Voting fraud in Redlands Ward

Attempts were made to rig postal votes in last year's council election but police cannot catch the fraudsters, it was revealed last night.

Probes by detectives and election officials have proved fraudulent applications for postal votes were made in Redlands ward - the area that takes in the hospital, university and East Reading - but no-one will be charged.

The investigation was sparked after complaints by the Liberal Democrats, who came second in the area to Labour's candidates Riaz Chaudhri, Peter Kayes and Haji Faraz Khan.

The Lib Dems demanded a re-run in the ward, saying the result was unsafe, but Reading Borough Council chief executive Trish Haines said no second election was needed, believing vote rigging did not affect the outcome.

The council last night was unable to say how many false votes were cast nor for which party.

Reading police chief Dave Murray told the Post detectives uncovered two types of fraud. The conmen either used the voting identities of people who had recently moved out of the ward or merely invented fictitious identities.

But while police proved the fraud, the trail ran cold in catching the fraudsters.

Chief Superintendent Murray said: "There is nowhere to start from in terms of building a case. There is no evidence against any particular individual.

"It would have been lovely to have caught somebody but anybody who might contemplate voting malpractices in future there is a clear message that the audit from the local authority will pick it up and we will investigate it."

The probe cleared council officials of malpractice or bungling the votes.

In the June 10 election Labour polled 2,984 votes in Redlands, the Lib Dems 1,741, the Conservatives 1,286 and the Green Party 502.

Prof John Howson, the Lib Dem's General Election hopeful in Reading East, last night called on Reading Borough Council to rerun the election.

He said: "Clearly, nobody can ever know the true extent of this fraud… it means the result of this election is unsafe and it means the election should be held again."

But Stuart Singleton-White, chairman of Reading Labour Party, believed there should not be a new ballot. He said: "Obviously I am concerned to hear about the findings of irregularities in the election practices in the Redlands area.

"However, I do not think there is a case for rerunning the election in Redlands because of the number of votes, the majorities are so great."

Paul Swaddle, who chairs Reading East Conservative Association, said "a fraud is still a fraud" and insisted there was no other option but to rerun the election. But Mrs Haines said: "We are now sure that the postal voting irregularities did not have an impact on the overall results of the election.

"Work has already gone into ensuring the voting system in Reading is as fair as possible, including the work we have recently carried out to update the electoral register, removing entries that are out of date and encouraging residents to meet their legal requirement and register their details annually."

A report on tightening up postal votes procedure has been sent to the Electoral Commission by police.

Mr Swaddle questioned how the council knew whether any fraudulent votes would have affected the result or not.